![](\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/megabite.jpg\")
\nPolice reportedly released the woman after 24 hours, confiscated her five computers
\nand shut down her Web site. She was arrested Monday in her home town of Mechelen,
\n30 kilometres north of Brussels.<\/p>\n
"She was preparing to publish new viruses on this site," Inspector
\nOlivier Bogaert of the Belgium police was quoted as telling La Libre Belgique.<\/p>\n
The Computer Crimes Unit inspector said Gigabyte was an extremely talented student. "I
\ntold her it was a pity that she did not put her skills to a more positive use," he
\ntold the paper.<\/p>\n
Her youth and gender helped gain Gigabyte notoriety in the male-dominated world
\nof computer hackers. In a 2002 interview carried on the Web site www.techtv.com,
\nGigabyte defended her work, saying she herself never spread the viruses she created
\nand published on her Web site.<\/p>\n
"When people make guns, can you blame them when somebody else kills with
\nthem?" she was quoted asking. "I only write them. I don’t release them."<\/p>\n
According to TechTV, Gigabyte began writing programs when she was just 6-years-old,
\ncreated her first computer worm at 14 and before turning 18 became only the second
\nperson to write a virus in C-sharp, the language of Microsoft’s .Net platform.<\/p>\n
from the AP<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Police reportedly released the woman after 24 hours, confiscated her five computers and shut down her Web site. She was arrested Monday in her home town of Mechelen, 30 kilometres north of Brussels. "She was preparing to publish new viruses … Continue reading